Gather 'round kids cuz Grandpa Buzzblog is gonna tell a story.
Remember how your jaws all dropped the first time you saw HD-TV and realized how much better it was than crappy ol' regular TV?
Well, your Gramps and his homies had a similar epiphany 25 years ago when the compact disc first emerged as an alternative to records.
What's a record? … Another story for another day, kids, lemme go on here while I still have the wind.
You see it was 25 years ago tomorrow to the day, Aug. 17, 1982, when Philips made the first CD in Germany. I'm gonna read to you from a press release now:
Exactly 25 years ago tomorrow, on August 17, 1982, Royal Philips Electronics manufactured the world's first compact disc at a Philips factory in Langenhagen, just outside of Hanover, Germany. The invention of the CD ushered in a technological revolution in the music industry as CDs — with their superior sound quality and scratch free durability — marked the beginning of the shift from analog to digital music technology. The CD became a catalyst for further innovation in digital entertainment, helping pave the way for the launch of DVD and the current introduction of Blu-ray optical media.
Since that day Philips estimates that more than 200 billion -- that's billion with a "B" -- have been sold worldwide, although I know that none of you young whippersnappers have bought any lately what with those iPod buds stuck in your ears all the time.
Anyway, I'm not going to drone on here much longer cuz I see you're getting fidgety, but I want you to believe your Grandpa Buzzblog when he tells you he can remember hearing a CD for the first time as clearly as the first time he kissed your Grandma Buzzblog -- not as fondly, mind you.
And lastly -- hey, hey, hey, wait just another second, those video games aren't going anywhere … And lastly, I want you to know exactly how close the manufacturing of that very first CD came to killing -- and I mean killing deader than Elvis -- the entire music industry.
How so, you say?
The artist on that first disc: ABBA.
Kids, be glad you're too young.
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Dancing Queen Rules!
C'mon, you know you love Dancing Queen and who can forget Waterloo...not the best use of CD technology perhaps but classics!
What's wrong with ABBA???
Well I wasn't quite born yet when the first CD came out, but there is nothing wrong with ABBA, and for what it's worth, ABBA sounds MUCH better on CD than the old records. (Yes I've heard both; I'm young but not sheltered.)
Records aren't always crappy compared to CDs
Records aren't always worse than CDs. In fact a large part of the "problems" with records isn't the records but the table and the cartridge.
(This is from a 16 yr old who has grew up with computers, CDs and mp3s.)
http://www.dailywav.com/0699/
http://www.dailywav.com/0699/noabba2.wav
records or CD? Why not both?
I have a LOT of records, and a LOT of cassette tapes. (I also have a LOT of 8-track tapes, but let's not go there...)
Anyway, my point is that a lot of that old stuff just isn't available on CD. And a lot of it is good and worth keeping around.
There is a really really good product called Spin-It-Again from Acoustica that makes saving all your old LP's and cassette tapes to CD's or MP3's a real easy process. Plus it gives you a reason to listen to all those old scratchy LP's again. Hey, did I mention that Spin-It-Again will even remove the hisses and pops of old tapes and records? I didn't? Well it does. (And no, I do not work for Acoustica. I am just really thrilled with the app.)
So now Buffalo Springfield is back in play and I'm in the groove baby! (Without the groove of course.) Stop, hey, what's that sound? It's me listening to my old albums on CD!
Records have a wider range
Records have a wider range than CDs, with the right equipment, records blows CDs away.
First CD?
I thought the first CD that was pressed in Hanover was a recording of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauß.
ABBA?
Sorry but the remark about ABBA can only be based on (musical) snobbery or ignorance. I was never a fan and yes it *is* pop music but they are widely regarded by more umm, serious musicians, e.g. Bjork, Elvis Costello, The Edge, as having written and performed some of the best pop music of all time. It's fluff, if you like, but it's very good fluff!
With apologies to The Beatles
This little ditty made its way around the office. Thought it would be worth sharing. I think you can figure out the music it is set to.
=====
It was 25 years ago today
Royal Philips got the disc to play,
Now vinyl LPs are out of style,
And cassette tapes just cause a smile...
So let me introduce to you
The tech you've known for all these years....
Royal Phillips Electronics Compact Disc!
The Royal Phillips Electronics Compact Disc
Won't scratch if you drop it on the floor
The Royal Phillips Electronics Compact Disc
Need minutes? We've got seventy-four!
Royal Phillips Electronics, Royal Phillips Electronics,
Royal Phillips Electronics Compact Disc
It's wonderful to play them, it's certainly a thrill
You're such a lovely audience, we'd love to take you home
We'd love to take you home...
And if you have to stop the show,
The pause button works well, you know,
If you want to know which disc I am,
Well once you were in a mighty jam,
But let me introduce to you,
The coding wizards at Gracenote and...
The Royal Phillips Electronics Compact Disc
What do you do if you've lost the insert
And you want to know who's on this song?
Give me a TOC and I'll tell you the name,
And even more info as we go along...
Oh, I can ID with a little help from Gracenote,
Find a key with a little help from Gracenote,
Enjoy my CD with a little help from Gracenote,
Do you need an on-disc label?
I just need you to give me a TOC....
Do you need the recording label?
I just need you to give me a TOC...
Would you believe in a first guess that's right
Well I'm certain that it happens all the time...
How can you do this all day and all night?
I can tell you 'bout my vast data mine...
Oh, I can ID with a little help from Gracenote,
Find a key with a little help from Gracenote,
Enjoy my CD with a little help from Gracenote,
Oldies are still going strong..albuns, not my old CD's.
Well, my 30 and 40 year old records still play just fine. Not so my older, and many newer, CD's. So don't count your years before they hatch.
CD's are very prone to all kinds of optical damage that limits their long-term usability. The more common formats for digital music are far more prone to misreads than pure data disks, too.
Yes, CD's, when they work, have excellent signal to noise ratios and can exceed the dynamic range of most any stereo system, but a good old record will, and have, outlasted them. Not to mention the better harmonic balance of good records. I've replace countless CD's that stopped playing on one player after another, but not so a single record.
I think CD's are great for a lot of things, but they are best for PC software that goes out of date about the time they stop working. Music lives on, and so should the format it is recorded on.